IITs to reserve 779 seats for women

Kharagpur: Amid the chaos over women’s safety in the country, the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) have decided to reserve more 779 seats for female applicants in the new academic session this year. The decision may increase the number of girls in the IITs. “Over the next few years, the percentage of girls will be hiked to 20 percent,” IIT Kharagpur faculty member Sudeshna Sarkar said.

“Additional supernumerary seats created over and above girls who were already coming in. Seats to be decided based on the number of girls already in the system. In the coming year, the target is to go up to 14 percent girls,” she added.

A sub-committee of the Joint Admission Board (JAB) had observed in 2017 that enough number of women clear JEE (Advanced) every year but the enrollment of the female aspirants are much lower.

Of the 779 seats, 113 seats are given to IIT Kharagpur, followed by 95 seats to IIT-Dhanbad, 79 to IIT-Kanpur, 76 to IIT-BHU, 68 to IIT-Roorkee, 59 to IIT-Delhi, 58 to IIT-Bombay and 57 to IIT Guwahati.

The decision was taken last year by the IIT Council but a final number of supernumerary seats have been announced now.